CASING AND CEMENTING HARDWARE

| Guide shoes | Float Collars | Baskets

and Centralisers
admin | November 27, 2009 | Comments (0)
CASING AND CEMENTING HARDWARE:
Some or all of the following equipment is used during cementing operations.
1. Guide shoes
A guide shoe is used to guide the casing through the hole, avoiding jamming the casing in washed-out zones, or
in deviated wells. It can be a simple guide or may contain a ball valve .
or flapper valve, Figure 6.2. When a guide shoe contains a valve element it is described as a float shoe. A float
shoe prevents cement from flowing back into the casing once the cement is displaced behind the casing. Shoes
have either inner parts made of aluminium or cement; both being easily drillable, with the advantage that cement
is more resistant to impact. Float shoes have all the advantages of the guide shoes, plus the float valve to avoid
back flow and provide casing buoyancy. The main disadvantage of a float shoe is the extra time it takes to run
casing in hole (RIH); with casing running operations temporarily stopped to fill the casing from the top. By using
an orifice fill shoe (automatic fill-up shoe), RIH time can be reduced as the casing is filled up while running in
hole, see bottom illustration in Figure
6.2. Once the casing reaches TD, the float valve can be activated by dropping a ball from surface and pressuring
on it to remove an insert and activate the valve, Figure 6.2

Float Collars
A float collar is a one way valve placed at one or two joints above the shoe. The float collar provides the same
functions as a float shoe by preventing fluid back flow into the casing: mud backflow during running in hole and
cement slurry backflow after cement displacement.The distance between the shoe and float collar is called Shoe
Track. The float valve can either be a ball type or a flapper, Figure 6.3. Flapper type valves are normally used

where a small hydrostatic pressure difference is expected, providing a better seal than a ball type valve.

Baskets and Centralisers

These are used to centralise the casing within the hole to improve the cementing process, Figure 6.4.

Cement Plugs
The main functions of cement plugs are, Figure 6.5:
Separate mud from cement
Wipe the casing from mud before cement is pumped and then wipe casing from th cement film after the complete
volume of cement is pumped.
Prevent over-displacement of cement
Give surface indication that cement placement is complete
Allow the casing to be pressure tested
In effect, the cement plugs act as barriers between mud and cement providing physical separation between the
two fluids. Bad cement jobs, especially around the casing shoe, result
from cement contaminated with mud.

Multi-Stage Collar
A multi-stage collar (or DV tool) is used to allow the casing to be cemented in two stages to prevent weak
formations being subjected to excessive hydrostatic pressure of long cement columns.The tool is actually a small
section of casing with the same strength properties as the remaining string. The tool has two internal sleeves and
openings which are covered by the lower sleeve,Figure 6.6. The lower sleeve is opened by dropping a bomb
which pushes the sleeve down and uncovers the holes. This allows the cement to be pumped through the casing
and the holes in the stage collar and placed around the casing. When the required volume of cement is pumped,
the holes are closed by dropping a closing plug which pushes an upper sleeve downward to cover the holes in the
stage collar.

Multi-stage cementing is used to:

reduce total pumping pressure or pumping time
reduce total hydrostatic pressure of cement on weak formations or on casing
allow selective cementing of formations within the open hole
allow entire length of casing to be cemented The position of the stage cementer is dictated by the total length of
the cement column and the strength of the formations in the open hole